Alphabet - ਪਹਿਲਾ

- ਚੱਚਾ - chachaa - eleventh letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet.


Name: chachaa
Shape: ਚ - see note*.
Spelling: ਚੱਚਾ
Sound: 'ch' as the 'ch' in 'chips'
Type: Consonant
*Note:

On the right, in the animation, you only draw half way down the vertical stroke before stopping and then moving on to the left. This might seem a bit odd but there is a good reason for it.

If you carried on to the bottom and then around, you would have to learn how to do the tight curve that joins the horizontal bar in an anti-clockwise direction and this would be the only letter that you did it for.

By doing it the way it is done in the animation, you are also learning the foundations of how to draw the other letters ਢ and ਦ; and, to some extent ਜ.


Mouth: hold your mouth in exactly the same way that you would if you were saying the sound of the 'ch' in the word 'chips'.
Tongue: Curved so that the front of your tongue (not the tip) touches the back of your tooth ridge.
Soft Palette: blocking nose
Lips: apart
Vocal Chords: Not used
Aspirated: no

Confusion: ਚ ਜ ਢ ਦ
Reading: none
Writing: It is easy to confuse ਚ with ਜ, ਢ and ਦ when you start out but familiarity solves this.

Copyright ©2007-2023 Paul Alan Grosse.